To Sir, with Love: a lesson for Jamie's Dream School

In the film, To Sir, with Love, made in 1967, Thackeray, played by Sidney Poitier, breaks up a difficult situation between the boys and another teacher. The teacher behaved badly and the boys reacted. Thackeray is furious with his pupils.

Another boy is outraged. The teacher was in the wrong, and had behaved badly first. He puffs out his chest shouting, “Just cause he’s a teacher??”

Thackeray turns to Potter. “Do you think you behaved like an adult?”

The boy slowly bows his head, shaking it slightly. But his friend isn’t having it. “How about Mr Bell apologising!”

So it goes on. It reminds me of Jamie’s Dream School, made in 2011, on again tonight at 9pm. In last week's episode, David Starkey called a pupil ‘fat’. No doubt he was remembering his own school days, and was trying to be cool. He clearly has no idea what he is doing, and every teacher in the land watching that scene took a deep breath when he said it. We knew what was coming. The boy gets angry, insults Starkey, causes havoc in the lesson, and makes it clear that not only is he lost for the rest of that lesson, but he may be lost for good.

What is the result? Jamie and John D’Abbro, the Head of Jamie’s school and a Head in real life discuss possible disciplinary for Starkey, and how his comment about the child being fat was unacceptable. Their discussion in the main revolves around who insulted who first. As it was recorded, they know for sure that it was Starkey who committed the first sin. What particularly disappointed me about Starkey was that he told Jamie Oliver that it was the boy who had insulted him first. You’d think we were dealing with a bunch of five-year-olds in the playground. How utterly humiliating for Starkey not only to have called the boy ‘fat’, but then to be caught lying about it.

But enough about Starkey. I don’t care about him. It’s the boy that matters. When all is said and done, David Starkey will always be David Starkey. He’ll be fine. The boy, on the other hand, is depending on the adults and teachers in his life to do what is right by him. Does John D’Abbro call the boy in and explain that his reaction is out of order? Does he get angry like Thackeray, and demand that his pupils rise above the petty behaviour of others, even that of their teachers, and teach him about the value of turning the other cheek, of respect, and dignity? No. All he and Jamie talk about is possible consequences for Starkey. He insulted the boy first, and that’s all that matters.

Thackeray stares at his kids with dismay and revulsion at the idea that he should be backing the children against Mr Bell.

“My business is with YOU – not with Mr Bell.” He says, determinedly. He looks at the boy Potter. “Are you a man, or a hoodlum?”

I always used to ask my boys, “Are you a man, or a mouse?” Men don’t hit back, I’d say. Men are better than that. But Potter’s friend isn’t having any of it. Just like the ‘fat’ boy’s friend isn't having any of it. ‘If teachers don’t respect us, we won’t respect them.”

Potter’s friend tells him to apologise because he has to, because otherwise he won’t get his reference, because after all, power lies with the teachers. Potter moves towards the door. Thackeray stops him.

“If you apologise because you’re afraid, then you’re a child, not a man.”

So the boy chooses to apologise, not because he has to, but because he wants to, because he wants to be a man. That’s how it was in 1967.

In 2011, not one adult even has that conversation with the boy, (and the other children who are in desperate need of such a conversation) not his Head, not his teacher, not his mother, not anyone. All we care about in 2011 is who said it first. David Starkey was in the wrong; there is no question. But if this issue isn’t addressed in tonight’s programme, then I’m getting into a time machine and I’m moving back to 1967!